Keeping With the Theme

More childrens’ stories physics.

Built on Facts: The Physics of Rapunzel

[T]he plot revolves around her letting down her hair. Hair has weight, and so she’s going to have to have some strength to hold up the weight of all that hair.

I have a cartoon for this, too, though not about the tensile strength of hair.

rapunzel

Let's Violate Causality, Too

Chad points out the physics problem with Goldilocks in The Faulty Thermodynamics of Children’s Stories

The description provided of the other two bowls, though, is not consistent with known physics. The Mama Bear, as the other adult, ought to have the second-largest bowl of porridge, which, in turn, ought to be the second-warmest bowl of porridge (assuming that equilibrium has not been reached). But the story says that this bowl is too cold! Meanwhile, the Baby Bear, who ought to have the smallest portion of porridge, has a bowl that is “just right,” neither too not nor too cold. As the smallest bowl, though, the Baby Bear’s porridge ought to be the coldest of the three (until equilibrium is reached, of course). There is no way for the bowls as described to have the temperatures described, while being consistent with the known laws of thermodynamics.

So I decided to travel back in time to draw a cartoon depicting the problem.

goldilocks

Is it Science?

Teaching Peer Review

Teachers have been giving feedback on what has caught the imagination of the students. The interviews with “real” scientists and editors describing their experience of the peer review system “raised a few eyebrows.” The students were shocked to discover that the process existed at all, and that scientists welcomed constructive criticism from their peers about how they could improve a paper. This challenged the notion of scientists always being “right.” That most reviewers give their time for free also hit a chord.

Very importantly, they note that peer-review isn’t the same as independent confirmation — it’s simply one hurdle that screens out obviously-flawed papers with some efficiency.

The new course material points out that clearing the peer review process doesn’t make a piece of research “right,” it’s just one cog in the scientific development wheel. But it is an important cog, being the first point of distinction between what is speculation and opinion and what is scientific.

I hope this helps. At the very least some will have learned the implications of neither the op-ed page in the newspaper nor a post at some_random_schmoe.com being peer-reviewed, and that they should be assessed accordingly.

Slo-Mo

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel

Here is the first SprintCam v3 showreel, made for NAB 2009 exhibition. Mostly 1000FPS shots, made during a recent rugby competition in the Stade de France, Paris.

I am particularly enamored of the dropped gelatin cube, starting at about 2:00. Mmmmmm, vibrational modes. Watch it — there’s always time for Jell-o.

That's Odd

Thursday is an Odd Day

Odd Day is coming Thursday, 5/7/9. Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. This day marks the half-way point in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905—13 months after the Wright Brothers’ flight.